The State of Nirvāṇa Is the Illusory Transformation and Manifestation of Tathāgatagarbha

The state of nirvāṇa is manifested illusorily by the tathāgatagarbha; it is not truly existent, but is attained through cultivation. Without cultivation, there is no state of nirvāṇa; afterwards one must still emerge from the state of nirvāṇa, and the state of nirvāṇa then disappears and changes—this shows that such nirvāṇa is subject to arising and ceasing. Therefore it is said that nirvāṇa is also not real; only the tathāgatagarbha itself is real and not false, and the tranquil nirvāṇa nature manifested by the tathāgatagarbha is real. Nirvāṇa with remainder, nirvāṇa without remainder, and the non-abiding nirvāṇa of the Buddha-ground are all first nonexistent and then existent, produced later after birth; therefore they are illusory phenomena, phenomena of arising and ceasing. Apart from the non-abiding nirvāṇa of the Buddha-ground, which will never disappear, neither nirvāṇa with remainder nor nirvāṇa without remainder can endure without ceasing. Only the nirvāṇa virtue manifested by the tathāgatagarbha is real, unchanging, and neither arising nor ceasing.

Defining a definition incorrectly does not necessarily affect the realization of fruition, and defining it correctly does not necessarily guarantee realization of fruition either. Whether one realizes fruition or not, whether one genuinely cultivates or not, does not lie in the definition of concepts. There are even arhats of the fourth fruit who cannot expound the Dharma, while ordinary beings can expound on the levels of realization and practice of a fourth-fruit arhat. Cultivation does not lie in how one expounds the Dharma, but in actual realization and the workings of the mind.